TheGreatGreen
Well-known member
por que no los dos?
Took a peek down the Fractal rabbit hole... considering a major change now.
- Thread starter GreatRedDragon
- Start date
por que no los dos?
the4thlast1
Well-known member
Fractal—tube poweramp—guitar cab. The tone and flexibility being run this way is hard to beat.
I have a dozen tube amps, and love owning them. For live use, the Fractal is much more practical for normal usage. Of course stadium acts can crank their amps and have sound guys to perfect their sounds, most of use get two minutes.
Fusionbear
Well-known member
I was equally hesitant, but the FM9T and a QSC CP12 combination works awesome for me. The QSC is very, very loud if need be. My bandmates play in other bands and they tell me that my rig sounds huge...
GreatRedDragon
Well-known member
Welp, just pulled the trigger on an FM9. If it passes my sniff test the next step will be dismantling my board and selling it off.
Well that's great to hear- thanks 
The amplification issue is mostly what's holding me back. I have my current setup dialed in perfectly and the idea of starting over is daunting. Though I get the sense it'll be worth it in the long run.
95% of the time we're doing our own sound for smaller gigs, which means the less through the PA the better (just vocals, keys, kick, etc). I rely on stage volume for guitar- if I go with a wedge, it has to be behind me with enough dispersion to work. Otherwise, I'm likely looking at one of the guitar-style FRFR cabinets (the Fender FR10/12s seem to be well regarded). Or possibly a power amp with a regular cabinet, but I'd like to avoid that.
Carl- do you have the wedge in front of you or behind you?
Anyone else using one of these setups ... what are you using for amplification?
The amplification issue is mostly what's holding me back. I have my current setup dialed in perfectly and the idea of starting over is daunting. Though I get the sense it'll be worth it in the long run.95% of the time we're doing our own sound for smaller gigs, which means the less through the PA the better (just vocals, keys, kick, etc). I rely on stage volume for guitar- if I go with a wedge, it has to be behind me with enough dispersion to work. Otherwise, I'm likely looking at one of the guitar-style FRFR cabinets (the Fender FR10/12s seem to be well regarded). Or possibly a power amp with a regular cabinet, but I'd like to avoid that.
Carl- do you have the wedge in front of you or behind you?
Anyone else using one of these setups ... what are you using for amplification?
romanianreaper
Well-known member
I loved having Fractal stuff. I have two tube amps and gig with a transistor amp. I dig tones and sounds regardless of how I get them. It comes down to many factors for me at my age. Weight, good tone, etc.
If I had a Fractal FM3 into something, I'd be as happy as with my Orange. But I do like just moving a few knobs at a gig and bring done. Lol
If I had a Fractal FM3 into something, I'd be as happy as with my Orange. But I do like just moving a few knobs at a gig and bring done. Lol
Bronco
Well-known member
I run 4CM with my FM3 and Friedman Plex. YMMV, but I don't miss my analog pedals at all. Phaser, Flanger, Echoplex, Tremolo, Univibe in particular are so close I don't even notice.
Fusionbear
Well-known member
Here's are quick clips my wife took...
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?st...aPMVdTJpfl&id=100025559235831&mibextid=mXkcHE
jabps
Well-known member
Been there. Yes it looks clean and in theory should cover everything. In the end though I just couldn't deal with the programming. Sounds are great but it's a tradeoff. Programming or turning a knob. I use the ES-5 with it's most basic functions i.e. loops off and on and switching my amp. Same thing I wanted with the Fractal. 20 years ago I would have taken the deep dive with the Fractal, now I just want the immediacy. But never know until you try so I am glad I gave it a go.My current rig now has over 20 pedals.
With the IR-200 and the ES-8 at the center of it, it's designed so that I can run from my upfront pedals to my Marshall head, back to the IR loader with digital delay, reverb and modulation in parallel loops, while also letting me run patches using the onboard amp sims of the IR-200 cutting out the amp entirely. It's big, heavy, complicated and expensive.
Whereas, what I'm thinking with the Fractal is something like this:
Which to me looks clean, simple, no headaches and right now particularly appealing.
GreatRedDragon
Well-known member
This was my hesitation as well, and in fact an impetus for me to move into the analog world. But in a very Flowers For Algernon fashion, my board evolved from an SD-1 and a CE-5 to a massive MIDI-controlled space station requiring extensive programming anyway - a process made more fiddly by having multiple devices to program and interconnect.
I think I am destined to overcomplicate things, so I suppose I'm doing the wise thing by simplifying my overcomplications.
You have skills…
GreatRedDragon
Well-known member
Apparently this thing is showing up tomorrow? Damn fast shipping.
This has kicked my ass in gear a bit. I've been meaning to put together a new space for my guitars and set up the monitors I bought over a year ago and haven't used. Just cleared the needed space out in the corner of my living room and bought a set of stands off Amazon that should be coming tomorrow. With the speakers against opposing walls in a corner and set on stands to head height (I only play standing up) I hope I'm able to get a really awesome stereo image.
Thinking more about the rest of this board. I think I'm going to stick with Temple Audio and get the Duo 34. That way I can reuse the modules I already have. The patchbay will be used the same way as my current board: Instrument input, send, return and MIDI (via TRS) to amp. And of course I can build on this, adding a set of XLR outputs, a headphone out and a USB out. As a bedroom player I don't really need any of this of course, I can just have my shit all on the floor, but I do like to have everything tidy and organized, and avoid extra wear on the device's ports.
I'm also shopping around for expression pedals. The Mission Engineering stuff is appealing to me most. I'd like to have two, one as a dedicated wah and one for general expression. For the wah, I love the look of their raw metal model, it reminds me of the Wylde Wah:
I could just use my Morley, but if I'm going this route I might as well get my wahs from the FM9 too and take full advantage of the tweakability. Plus I prefer the look of a traditional wah enclosure, especially this bad motherfucker. I will for sure get the spring loaded version though, with auto engage it should feel like my Morley. I don't like the switch to engage a wah, but maybe I could get the switch version and use it to change channels on the Wah block - channel A being a normal wah with auto-engage, channel B being parked at the sweet spot. But then I wouldn't have the spring, so I could just park the wah where I want it anyway. Hm.
For general expression I'm thinking just getting a regular switchless springless version.
The whole thing is very exciting. Tearing down my board and selling it piece by piece is going to be a drag, and I don't know how hard it's gonna be to sell the board itself or some of the odder items, but I'm so looking forward to being able to plug and play.
This has kicked my ass in gear a bit. I've been meaning to put together a new space for my guitars and set up the monitors I bought over a year ago and haven't used. Just cleared the needed space out in the corner of my living room and bought a set of stands off Amazon that should be coming tomorrow. With the speakers against opposing walls in a corner and set on stands to head height (I only play standing up) I hope I'm able to get a really awesome stereo image.
Thinking more about the rest of this board. I think I'm going to stick with Temple Audio and get the Duo 34. That way I can reuse the modules I already have. The patchbay will be used the same way as my current board: Instrument input, send, return and MIDI (via TRS) to amp. And of course I can build on this, adding a set of XLR outputs, a headphone out and a USB out. As a bedroom player I don't really need any of this of course, I can just have my shit all on the floor, but I do like to have everything tidy and organized, and avoid extra wear on the device's ports.
I'm also shopping around for expression pedals. The Mission Engineering stuff is appealing to me most. I'd like to have two, one as a dedicated wah and one for general expression. For the wah, I love the look of their raw metal model, it reminds me of the Wylde Wah:
I could just use my Morley, but if I'm going this route I might as well get my wahs from the FM9 too and take full advantage of the tweakability. Plus I prefer the look of a traditional wah enclosure, especially this bad motherfucker. I will for sure get the spring loaded version though, with auto engage it should feel like my Morley. I don't like the switch to engage a wah, but maybe I could get the switch version and use it to change channels on the Wah block - channel A being a normal wah with auto-engage, channel B being parked at the sweet spot. But then I wouldn't have the spring, so I could just park the wah where I want it anyway. Hm.
For general expression I'm thinking just getting a regular switchless springless version.
The whole thing is very exciting. Tearing down my board and selling it piece by piece is going to be a drag, and I don't know how hard it's gonna be to sell the board itself or some of the odder items, but I'm so looking forward to being able to plug and play.
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Orvillain
Active member
Hopefully it is okay to post this here:
I am loving my Axe FX III in 4-cable-method with my amps. Specifically I'm using a Mesa Boogie Mark V in the video, but I also have a 2018 Dual Rectifier that I love too. It obviously works great with my other amps too.
The only thing I would say is, get yourself some 1:1 isolator transformer boxes. Those are a godsend for fixing ground loops and the like.
I am loving my Axe FX III in 4-cable-method with my amps. Specifically I'm using a Mesa Boogie Mark V in the video, but I also have a 2018 Dual Rectifier that I love too. It obviously works great with my other amps too.
The only thing I would say is, get yourself some 1:1 isolator transformer boxes. Those are a godsend for fixing ground loops and the like.
Mission EV-2 fits me better for wahs, just old good Dunlop movement range. But for gigbag space seving I use Dunlop X 8, which is size of Crybaby Junior. For volume and mixing/blending parameters is bets EV-1, big, heavy but very precise working and feeling. I have some scenes with wah and others with volume or parameter via M-plex block.
The flexibility and power of FXIII/FM9T is pretty unrivalled these days. Channels, block library, gapless switching...and with the editor on PC, I cannot be easier to set up.